Thursday, 12 June 2014

The Iraq War legacy---why is it so blurred!

So it is ten years after the invasion of Iraq by the
coalition forces. The speculation that the decision to go to the war was a
disastrous mistake which ultimately eroded public trust in the politicians and
gave rise to sentiments that intervention can only lead to protectionism and safeguarding
of self-interest still reigns down heavily against the judgment that Saddam
Hussain was a brutal dictator involved in the genocide of Kurdish people and
severely suppressed freedom of speech among his own people.

Any argument in favour of replacing the regime to uplift the
economic conditions of the country which by the year 2003 had a weak and
deteriorating economic structure, despite being ranked seventh in the list of
oil producing nations, is proven weak by the anti-war protestors and the peace
activists who rally around the argument that economic sanctions were enough to
remove Saddam Hussein.

Leaving aside the statistics, various available data
analysis and the reports on the build-up of the decision that war was
inevitable there can be little validation to the fact that there is no
accountability of the objectives and methods employed by the single entity of
power to establish the rule of law which infringes human rights. Dictatorship
thrives on absolute power and an individual who wants total control over social
and economic organizations will rely on a highly developed ideology to justify
doing so. And if Islamization is supported as the rule of law it is the women
who suffer the most.

Whether it is the right to drive a car without the need of a
chaperone or the ultimate necessity to give protection to the victim of rape
and not demand witnesses to prove that the crime had been committed, if the basic
argument rests against the need to change these practices because the
principles of a faith interpret it differently than it cannot lead to an equal
status of women in society. Strict interpretation of Quran in many parts of the
world has become an exception to morally validate the case that women should
apply a social code which was established in the advent of Islam. With no laws
in place to allow freedom of speech and open debate very little can be achieved
to make women feel secure and safe. A dictator will choose any law that gives
him immunity from leaving power and time and again in the Muslim world the
ideals of sharia law have been upheld by totalitarian regimes.

Let us not be deluded by the belief that an organized system
of governance brings prosperity where voices which seek change are suppressed
and made to remain silence. Iraq
has seen its share of tragedy, much need to be done to keep it stable and away
from the chaos of a civil war but then for the first time people have the right
to vote in general elections. Every war has its ugly consequences but then can
we justify the emergence of dictators! The cries to silence the support for the
intervention in Iraq
blur the objectives----lamenting the reasons for the overthrow of dictatorship
is intellectual laziness which hinders taking responsibility for change.

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About Me

@mssolidarity is Salima Yakoob. She has written on extremism, war on terror and
international politics. Many times she stands corrected but refuses to bow down
to religious apologists and moderates with no agendas. Her degree in English
proved beneficial in understanding the several isms.

If @mssolidarity is not writing she is doing
school runs, reading books of all sorts and listening to London Grammar on her
ipod.

Her posts
can be sometimes off-track and overly imaginative, but you should forgive her. She
is only a writer.